Such lovely springlike weather we’re having, with sunny skies, temperatures in the mid-60s, dry air!
Until Sunday, when, once again, temperatures barely topping 40 accompanied by a wintry mix return. But, again, until then … . So what say we start the weekend a bit early, on Friday? If we do that, we have a couple of intriguing options:
Every week in our GetHiking! enewsletter — which is delivered free every Thursday afternoon — we have a main story, a rundown of all the upcoming hikes in our eight GetHiking! chapters in North Carolina and Virginia, a gear recommendation, a media review, a hiking tip. We also list a favorite resource, sometimes one we find invaluable in planning our hikes, sometimes one that leads us to information that can help enhance our time on the trail, and sometimes one that’s just fun, entertaining, quirky.
Will it snow again this weekend? It looked likely at the beginning of the week, less likely as of today. So let’s go with the latest forecast, which calls for a mostly sunny weekend throughout the central Piedmont, with high temperatures in the low 40s. It’s a change in forecast that I’m sure the Triangle Land Conservancy is glad to see since it’s the first Saturday of the month, which means it’s time for their First Saturday Hike, of which there are two this month.
We love hiking in winter. Its allure — cool temperatures to keep you moving, dry air, and awesome light, to name three — go largely unappreciated. Still, it’s a time for shorter hikes. Shorter hours of daylight, the rapidly disappearing late-day sun, the cold early and late. It’s a great time to be out, just not for prolonged periods of time.
Here’s the snow report for this weekend:
Seems like we should start making this a regular feature in our Thursday GetOut! weekend planning advisory. For have we ever had three weekends in a row with snow? The folks here in the GetHiking! Weather Center can find no record of that happening before in the Piedmont (though our records only go back 10 years). Anyway …
